Above: 2009’s great dummy spitter, and the baby from The Hangover
Much like McG’s endless grey landscapes, it was a cold, bleak dawn at the Australian box-office this weekend for Terminator Salvation, as the sequel collapsed against the debut of Todd Phillips’ dude-com, The Hangover.
The Vegas-set romp mirrored its recent US success by opening with an estimated $3.4 million in takings, while Salvation dipped 64 per cent. The $11 million cume for the man-machine sequel is still decent, demonstrating the fact that, contrary to US figures, the film is performing robustly in international markets. Then again, Angels and Demons has made more money than Star Trek here — so what do local audiences know?
Meanwhile, Will Ferrell’s Land of the Lost — lambasted, somewhat harshly, by the Sydney Morning Herald as the worst film of 2009 — could only manage a third-place debut, and studio indie Sunshine Cleaning, starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt, crawled into 10th place on limited release.
It was encouraging news for Warwick Thornton’s Samson and Delilah, however, as the Cannes-winning Australian film continued its solid run and passed the $2 million mark in its sixth week of release.
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